Coffin cases - not the usual restorations

I had a bunch of old cases lying around, and stimulated by a few recent acquisitions, decided to try out some restorations of coffin cases. To start out, here are some originals:

The originals were fairly shiny, often had a decorative wrapping on the inside, and across the board had a red painted lip inside. Any holes in the cases can be repaired with papier-mache techniques. I fixed a few like this. Then the cases can be sealed with a thin layer of wood glue (a PVA glue). The original outer finish was as easy as black spray paint followed by an acrylic clearcoat. Here are a couple with the inside unchanged from the original decorative paper, but the outside has been restored:

Based on the first Greaves case pictured, the wrapper could actually be fairly vibrant marbled paper. Here is a full restoration of an early 1800s Greaves case. The marbled paper is fairly thin and was attached by soaking the back in a thinned PVA glue mixture, followed by a wood glue top coat:

Part 2, some earlier cases. First up, this one I believe to be 1700s but may be earlier. It has been repaired with papier-mache (brown spot) to fix a hole, and the whole thing coated in wood glue as a sealant:

Another early one, a double case, with the marbled inner as before:

Probably 1700s 6-slot case. This one was falling apart but was stabilized with an overall coat of wood glue, and the inside was covered with marbled paper:

An early one with a slot for a strop, this one was coated in wood glue and thin red paper for the inner, as seen in some early depictions:

There are tons of these cases around, and they are more repairable than you might think at first. All these only took me a weekend. So if you have any cases that are beat and you think of throwing out, give it a shot!

Part 2, some earlier cases. First up, this one I believe to be 1700s but may be earlier. It has been repaired with papier-mache (brown spot) to fix a hole, and the whole thing coated in wood glue as a sealant:

Another early one, a double case, with the marbled inner as before:

Probably 1700s 6-slot case. This one was falling apart but was stabilized with an overall coat of wood glue, and the inside was covered with marbled paper:

An early one with a slot for a strop, this one was coated in wood glue and thin red paper for the inner, as seen in some early depictions:

There are tons of these cases around, and they are more repairable than you might think at first. All these only took me a weekend. So if you have any cases that are beat and you think of throwing out, give it a shot!

I actually have quite a few lying around and thought about tossing them. I think I'll give a restoration of one a try.

I did a light reconstruction on an old Wostenholm I sold some time back:

In retrospect, I should've refinished the whole outer case instead of just patching up parts. The interior paper and red-lip are original (and a bit sloppy!), but there was a large tear in the corner of the cap that I sealed with traditional papier-mâché technique (a bit of tissue-paper or maybe a paper-towel and some 50:50 PVA glue/water solution), then covered with black India ink, then sealed with a coat of PVA glue.

PVA glue is common Elmer's Glue All or most similar white-to-yellow viscous glues that are water soluble. Most wood glue works too.